Jon Dougherty
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
On Tuesday a reporter/broadcaster with Missourinet news, a Learfield property, implied in a story on the air regarding the current partial government shutdown that it is President Trump’s fault because he is seeking $5.6 billion for border wall construction.
I’ve come to expect this kind of bias from Missourinet news because its correspondents nearly universally echo Democrat talking points and a Left-leaning perspective. But I couldn’t let this one pass.
Let’s be clear: This is not President Trump’s shutdown.
The president’s funding request for a physical barrier along our porous southwestern border is neither extreme nor is it any different than what Democrats have supported in the past. Also, spending bills originate in the House, which is now controlled by Nancy Pelosi’s Democrats, who won’t, at this point, even sit down with the White House to hammer out a compromise.
President Trump cannot compel Pelosi to negotiate. But the longer she refuses to do so, simply because she wants to score political points with the Democratic base ahead of the 2020 elections, the more it becomes obvious that her party, not the White House, owns this shutdown.
It’d be nice if Missourinet news would quit picking sides since media are not supposed to do that. There is enough bias in other media; Missourians deserve better, and so does the president.